With billions and trillions of dollars being discussed, budgeted, printed and spent it is no small wonder that some are giddy over the prospect of dollar windfalls raining from the sky into our district. It sounds like a done deal.
Not so fast. It would seem thus far that the additional funds to come to the Marietta City Schools are very much in question. In fact some of the money may be more curse than blessing.
How can that be? How, indeed, one wonders. It seems there are many opportunities along the way to alter the flow of funds coming from the federal government to local school districts. Governor Strickland’s proposed biennium budget actually shortstops the federal money in Columbus.
Most of us remember how the lottery was sold to the voting public. The promise was made that profits from the lottery would flow to education as an inducement to have the lottery concept approved. And we bought it.
But, there was a catch to the deal that was not widely publicized. It seems when all that money started showing up at the state from the lottery profits the legislators did as promised. They sent those dollars on to education. What they also did was stop sending dollars that had already been flowing to education and divert those funds to other projects.
In other words, the new lottery dollars displaced the old education dollars. Net gain? About zero. Put another way; no new money. We were cheated.
It’s about to happen again. This time the federal funds intended to serve impoverished students and students with special education needs are being thrown in to the education money pot in Columbus, pooling it with state money that will flow to schools. Any money will come with strings attached from both the state and federal governments.
At present we are among 230 districts whose new funds calculated by the proposed formula had to be capped to limit how much we will receive. We actually fall into a group with other districts that truly can be labeled wealthy under the new rules.
By contrast, Trimble Local in Athens County will receive no new funds the first year and actually lose 2% in the second year. Federal Hocking and Nelsonville-York are in similar condition with no hope under the new budget.
So what does that mean in Marietta? Great question. And as yet there is no reliable answer. The discussions continue in Columbus.
Original projections indicated we would receive about $1.1 million more than anticipated the first year and $1.2 million the second. But there’s a catch.
This is to be one time funding for some programs, covering only two years. We will have to be careful to only spend this money on short term programs. One wonders where the district would find the money to continue the services. So we will have to begin programs; run them for two years, then eliminate them.
There are actually more components contained in the Governor’s current budget proposal that could bankrupt districts.
One is a requirement to increase staffing in guidance departments. Another is to require a nurse be present in every building where students receive medications.
You recall this board took a knife to our budget last year to reduce spending. We trimmed programming and staffing to save money owing to finance shortages and projected deficits.
With personnel expenses at 83% of our total budget, Reduction in Force (RIF) is the most effective way to cut expenses. The Governor’s budget actually proposes eliminating RIF for financial reasons. What options does that leave for savings? Lights out!
A forum for Marietta City Schools constituents and board members. Comments, suggestions, observations and information invited.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
We Must Get It Right
The Marietta High School National Honor Society recently inducted 37 new members into its ranks. Forty students will be recognized for Academic Excellence at a banquet this spring. Several students are recognized as National Merit Finalists. Truly an honor and testament to the quality of our students as well as our educators and our system.
It is nice to toot the horn and recognize academic excellence. Good to know we have so many who are working up to their potential. But why is that important?
From a YouTube video titled Did You Know comes the following information: if you are a great student with a bright future deserving of the classification “one in a million” there are 1,300 more just like you in China.
During the first five minutes of the National Honor Society induction there were 67 babies born in the United States. None born in the auditorium that I could tell. In China, during that same 5 minutes, 274 babies were born. And in India, during that same 5 minutes, indeed every 5 minutes, 395 babies are born.
Consider this; China will soon be the largest English speaking country in the world. If you count the top 25% of academic achievers in India, that number of students is larger than the total of all students in the U.S.
Overwhelmed yet? Today’s students soon will be. Our schools are preparing students today for jobs that do not yet exist. Jobs that will require technology that does not yet exist. And the top ten jobs with the most demand for employees in the next few years - - do not exist today.
The average worker in the future is projected to have 10 to 14 jobs by age 38. One out of every 8 couples who married in 2005 met on the internet. Times have changed. The pace quickens.
The internet social website MySpace has well over 200 million users. If they were all in one geographic location they would constitute the 8th largest country in the world.
The first commercial text message was sent in 1992. Today, there are more text messages sent every day than there are people on the planet. There were over 3,000 books published……today. Technical information doubles every two years. By 2010 it is predicted to double every 72 hours.
One can observe the increasing pace of development by observing that after the invention of the radio it took 38 years to reach 50 million listeners. Television came along and took only 13 years to be in 50 million households.
The internet, many years later, required 4 years to achieve the 50 million user penetration. And Steve Jobs’ Apple Computer innovation, the iPod was in the hands of 50 million users in only 3 years.
Finally, if you need further proof of the changing times and the challenges our students will face in their careers, think about this. Who among us has not executed a Google search? Today there were 2.7 billion Google searches. One wonders who was answering all those questions before the advent of Google.
It is absolutely imperative that we prepare our students for the world that awaits them with the very best technology, the latest teaching and learning techniques and the most creative thinking concepts available. We owe our students and taxpayers no less than to have the highest expectations of our system and its performance that we can obtain given our resources. And we must seek to expand our talents and resources at every opportunity. You can be sure that the rest of the world is striving toward the same end.
It is nice to toot the horn and recognize academic excellence. Good to know we have so many who are working up to their potential. But why is that important?
From a YouTube video titled Did You Know comes the following information: if you are a great student with a bright future deserving of the classification “one in a million” there are 1,300 more just like you in China.
During the first five minutes of the National Honor Society induction there were 67 babies born in the United States. None born in the auditorium that I could tell. In China, during that same 5 minutes, 274 babies were born. And in India, during that same 5 minutes, indeed every 5 minutes, 395 babies are born.
Consider this; China will soon be the largest English speaking country in the world. If you count the top 25% of academic achievers in India, that number of students is larger than the total of all students in the U.S.
Overwhelmed yet? Today’s students soon will be. Our schools are preparing students today for jobs that do not yet exist. Jobs that will require technology that does not yet exist. And the top ten jobs with the most demand for employees in the next few years - - do not exist today.
The average worker in the future is projected to have 10 to 14 jobs by age 38. One out of every 8 couples who married in 2005 met on the internet. Times have changed. The pace quickens.
The internet social website MySpace has well over 200 million users. If they were all in one geographic location they would constitute the 8th largest country in the world.
The first commercial text message was sent in 1992. Today, there are more text messages sent every day than there are people on the planet. There were over 3,000 books published……today. Technical information doubles every two years. By 2010 it is predicted to double every 72 hours.
One can observe the increasing pace of development by observing that after the invention of the radio it took 38 years to reach 50 million listeners. Television came along and took only 13 years to be in 50 million households.
The internet, many years later, required 4 years to achieve the 50 million user penetration. And Steve Jobs’ Apple Computer innovation, the iPod was in the hands of 50 million users in only 3 years.
Finally, if you need further proof of the changing times and the challenges our students will face in their careers, think about this. Who among us has not executed a Google search? Today there were 2.7 billion Google searches. One wonders who was answering all those questions before the advent of Google.
It is absolutely imperative that we prepare our students for the world that awaits them with the very best technology, the latest teaching and learning techniques and the most creative thinking concepts available. We owe our students and taxpayers no less than to have the highest expectations of our system and its performance that we can obtain given our resources. And we must seek to expand our talents and resources at every opportunity. You can be sure that the rest of the world is striving toward the same end.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Science Olympiad and Bush Jumping
Paul Harvey died February 28. Along with him went a unique ability to appreciate and convey a sense of values that defined several generations of America. A Wall Street Journal eulogy specifically referenced his stories about “personal responsibility as opposed to individual license.”
When I learned last week of the Science Olympiad to be held Saturday, March 7 featuring the efforts of hundreds of Middle School students from many districts engaged in various scientific endeavors I determined to attend if only briefly. Here would be personal responsibility for learning exhibited on a large scale. Here too would be adults engaged in helping students expand their knowledge committing a full Saturday to the endeavor.
My effort was rewarded. There were robots in action; catapults launching items across distances; exercises in group cooperation to achieve stated goals and rockets being launched with cargoes of eggs to be delivered back to earth undamaged. I got a bit too close to that activity and Professor Anderson volunteered me. He put a stopwatch in my hand with instructions as to its use. Commandeered was more like it.
A joy to watch hundreds of students and adults all across the Marietta College campus engaged in constructive activity. Taking personal responsibility.
Contrast that with my experience later in the day when confronted by some unhappy folks who told me about their experiences with Middle School students who travel through their neighborhood at school day’s end. “You can hear them coming long before you see them. And what you hear is not fit language for anyone much less these youngsters. And the girls are as bad as the boys.”
The foul language reports were nothing new of youngsters that age. What struck me as alarming was the damage to property being inflicted on the neighborhood as the students were practicing their own version of the rocket experiment. These students were jumping into the air and landing on bushes and shrubbery to soften their fall. Fine for a safe landing, but destructive to the shrubbery. Students had also stolen a tricycle and engaged in bullying a smaller student in the neighborhood.
Requests to cease the behavior had been rebuffed with more bad language and intimidation. The police had been called on at least one occasion but with reluctance as the property owners feared retaliation with future behavior. They understood the concept of individual license that our society has granted in the name of free expression. Which sometimes trumps property rights.
I listened politely and sympathetically though with growing resentment that we have somehow failed to impart a sense of decency and self-respect to some of our students. Sadly it appears the absence of foreign language instruction at the middle school level has not stifled student’s abilities to speak in language foreign to their neighbors.
The day balanced out when I learned of the results of our science students. In individual events, we had five
1st places, five 2nd places, six 3rd places, six 4th places, three 5th places, and five 6th places. We placed in all but one event and qualified for the state competition in April. An impressive showing by all accounts.
Further good news of constructive activity came in the form of an announcement about the upcoming Academic Expo to be held March 17th at the Middle School. Over 200 students will compete for spots in the district level competition for National History Day to be held later at Marietta College. Hard to imagine these students would be engaged in property destruction tricycle theft, bullying and foul language. And now you know the rest of the story.
When I learned last week of the Science Olympiad to be held Saturday, March 7 featuring the efforts of hundreds of Middle School students from many districts engaged in various scientific endeavors I determined to attend if only briefly. Here would be personal responsibility for learning exhibited on a large scale. Here too would be adults engaged in helping students expand their knowledge committing a full Saturday to the endeavor.
My effort was rewarded. There were robots in action; catapults launching items across distances; exercises in group cooperation to achieve stated goals and rockets being launched with cargoes of eggs to be delivered back to earth undamaged. I got a bit too close to that activity and Professor Anderson volunteered me. He put a stopwatch in my hand with instructions as to its use. Commandeered was more like it.
A joy to watch hundreds of students and adults all across the Marietta College campus engaged in constructive activity. Taking personal responsibility.
Contrast that with my experience later in the day when confronted by some unhappy folks who told me about their experiences with Middle School students who travel through their neighborhood at school day’s end. “You can hear them coming long before you see them. And what you hear is not fit language for anyone much less these youngsters. And the girls are as bad as the boys.”
The foul language reports were nothing new of youngsters that age. What struck me as alarming was the damage to property being inflicted on the neighborhood as the students were practicing their own version of the rocket experiment. These students were jumping into the air and landing on bushes and shrubbery to soften their fall. Fine for a safe landing, but destructive to the shrubbery. Students had also stolen a tricycle and engaged in bullying a smaller student in the neighborhood.
Requests to cease the behavior had been rebuffed with more bad language and intimidation. The police had been called on at least one occasion but with reluctance as the property owners feared retaliation with future behavior. They understood the concept of individual license that our society has granted in the name of free expression. Which sometimes trumps property rights.
I listened politely and sympathetically though with growing resentment that we have somehow failed to impart a sense of decency and self-respect to some of our students. Sadly it appears the absence of foreign language instruction at the middle school level has not stifled student’s abilities to speak in language foreign to their neighbors.
The day balanced out when I learned of the results of our science students. In individual events, we had five
1st places, five 2nd places, six 3rd places, six 4th places, three 5th places, and five 6th places. We placed in all but one event and qualified for the state competition in April. An impressive showing by all accounts.
Further good news of constructive activity came in the form of an announcement about the upcoming Academic Expo to be held March 17th at the Middle School. Over 200 students will compete for spots in the district level competition for National History Day to be held later at Marietta College. Hard to imagine these students would be engaged in property destruction tricycle theft, bullying and foul language. And now you know the rest of the story.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Special Ed Spending vs: Gifted Spending by Wendy Myers
Marietta City School Board recently met with Student Services Coordinator, Marcella Swaney and Special Education Supervisor, Maureen Sigafoos to learn about special needs programming. Our district has financial troubles, and we are concerned about funding excellent education in our future. According to the most recent fiscal year Special Education Fiscal Accountability Report provided by the State, nearly 22% of our General Fund Budget goes towards special needs programming, and slightly more than 1% goes toward gifted programming.
Special education was mandated by the federal government in 1975 with the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. Currently, the program assists children with a variety of diagnoses, including speech & language impairment, autism, learning disability, emotional disturbance, cognitive delay, hearing impairment, multiple disabilities, traumatic brain injury and vision impairment.
Unlike special education, there is no federal mandate to provide gifted education. In Ohio, students are identified as gifted by categories, such as superior cognitive ability, specific academic ability, creative thinking ability and visual or performing arts ability. Specific gifted education plans are left to the districts and their resources.
This week, an opinion article in Newsweek, highlighted the dichotomy that faces school districts. Stephanie Lindsey, a mother who lives in Ohio, writes about the experience of sending her two children to school. Her son (8) has autism, and her daughter (12) is gifted. Her son receives individual attention with a specialist constantly by his side. Her daughter, by contrast, is bored with school; some of the only “gifted” instruction she receives is independent work. As Lindsey notes, in 2008 the No Child Left Behind Act allocated $24.5 billion to special education programs, while only $7.5 million was allocated in federal grants by the Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Program.
Currently our district serves 542 students with special needs. These children range from ages 3 through 21 as specified by law. Children enter our education system at the age of three through referrals by Help Me Grow, preschools and other sources. Ms. Swaney and Ms. Sigafoos walked us through the process for each child from referral to evaluation to Individual Education Plan. (IEP) Extensive reporting is required in order for our district to receive funding to help defray costs for therapists, aides, supplies, and qualified teachers. Unfortunately, the funding we receive falls far short of the amount needed to provide the services necessary for each child.
One type of testing in our district has identified 736 students, K-12 as gifted, and of these students, currently 63 are being served with gifted programming. Recently the school board learned about national certification of our Project Lead the Way, an innovative program that encourages high school students to learn more about the field of engineering. We also approved a high school curriculum with Advanced Placement classes. Neither of these programs are federal mandates, but we feel strongly that our job is to help all students in our district to excel.
Ms. Swaney and Ms. Sigafoos, helped us learn about the complicated special education system, and we developed a huge respect for our instructors, aides and administrators who navigate this system and provide excellent care and education to students with special needs. Every parent wants the best for his or her child. As a district we must strive to help every child reach his or her potential. In the next few months, the school board looks forward to finalization of Governor Strickland’s education proposal, and we fervently hope our funding will be increased to allow us to not only fund special education adequately, but to help provide better services to our gifted students as well.
Special education was mandated by the federal government in 1975 with the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. Currently, the program assists children with a variety of diagnoses, including speech & language impairment, autism, learning disability, emotional disturbance, cognitive delay, hearing impairment, multiple disabilities, traumatic brain injury and vision impairment.
Unlike special education, there is no federal mandate to provide gifted education. In Ohio, students are identified as gifted by categories, such as superior cognitive ability, specific academic ability, creative thinking ability and visual or performing arts ability. Specific gifted education plans are left to the districts and their resources.
This week, an opinion article in Newsweek, highlighted the dichotomy that faces school districts. Stephanie Lindsey, a mother who lives in Ohio, writes about the experience of sending her two children to school. Her son (8) has autism, and her daughter (12) is gifted. Her son receives individual attention with a specialist constantly by his side. Her daughter, by contrast, is bored with school; some of the only “gifted” instruction she receives is independent work. As Lindsey notes, in 2008 the No Child Left Behind Act allocated $24.5 billion to special education programs, while only $7.5 million was allocated in federal grants by the Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Program.
Currently our district serves 542 students with special needs. These children range from ages 3 through 21 as specified by law. Children enter our education system at the age of three through referrals by Help Me Grow, preschools and other sources. Ms. Swaney and Ms. Sigafoos walked us through the process for each child from referral to evaluation to Individual Education Plan. (IEP) Extensive reporting is required in order for our district to receive funding to help defray costs for therapists, aides, supplies, and qualified teachers. Unfortunately, the funding we receive falls far short of the amount needed to provide the services necessary for each child.
One type of testing in our district has identified 736 students, K-12 as gifted, and of these students, currently 63 are being served with gifted programming. Recently the school board learned about national certification of our Project Lead the Way, an innovative program that encourages high school students to learn more about the field of engineering. We also approved a high school curriculum with Advanced Placement classes. Neither of these programs are federal mandates, but we feel strongly that our job is to help all students in our district to excel.
Ms. Swaney and Ms. Sigafoos, helped us learn about the complicated special education system, and we developed a huge respect for our instructors, aides and administrators who navigate this system and provide excellent care and education to students with special needs. Every parent wants the best for his or her child. As a district we must strive to help every child reach his or her potential. In the next few months, the school board looks forward to finalization of Governor Strickland’s education proposal, and we fervently hope our funding will be increased to allow us to not only fund special education adequately, but to help provide better services to our gifted students as well.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Finance reform. Still confusing.
Perhaps you would enjoy coming to a school board meeting. Perhaps you would enjoy learning to speak Sanskrit.
That’s how some of us felt when Treasurer Dave Combs began to address the new state funding formula last Monday. All we know at this point is that supposedly we will be receiving more money the next two years than forecasted.
We are a long way from cashing those checks. A brief example cited will serve to share our bewilderment.
The current formula has various components based on each district’s specific details of those components. For instance; if one of the components is reimbursement for special education expenses in a certain category and based on the number of students we have in that category, it might be that the formula calls for us to receive $32,000 for that student.
If, however, the state is experiencing a budget difficulty, they may adjust the funding to give us only $26,000 for that student. Further, if owing to special circumstances related to the student’s needs and the availability and cost of the services we in fact experience a cost of $40,000, there may be yet another piece of the formula that calls for us to be reimbursed for “catastrophic expense” the difference between the $32,000 recognized and the $40,000 experienced. $8,000.
However, if again, the state is short of funds, we may only receive a few hundred dollars of the excess $8,000 that we paid in expenses. We are totally at the mercy of the state and their funding formula adjustments.
We have had and continue to have students whose educational cost to the district is in excess of $40,000. We continue to absorb those costs not reimbursed.
Herein lies our current mystery. Although we know there are 39 components to the new formula the old formula is totally scrapped, we do not know the details of the components, much less do we know the adjustments to those components for our district. That, as they say, is still a subject that is being “tweaked.”
There were a few non-regular attendees at last week’s board meeting. I made a point of asking one why he was in attendance. His only comment was to observe the total mystery surrounding the discussion of finances. In spite of many sessions with Mr. Combs on this subject I had to concur that this day’s discussion left me bewildered as well.
But take heart, there will come a day of reckoning when the dark curtain of the new funding formula will be removed and the components will be in plain view just as they are now for the current formula. One can but hope all the “tweaking” will produce a result that permits us to expand our services to all students and enhance the educational product of the Marietta City Schools.
The most enjoyable and encouraging piece of the meeting was the discussion of the Project Lead The Way program. This well attended and in demand engineering program is currently being taught at the high school with plans to begin that program in the middle school in the future. The objective is to interest more students in the engineering studies and get them on the path to a lifetime career in those fields.
Our Project Lead the Way program is now nationally credentialed and students can enter many colleges with up to 15 hours of college course work to their credit.
Instructor Steve Foutty confessed that the course work challenges him at times. Further, his students are happy to help him at those times. I wonder if they speak Sanskrit.
That’s how some of us felt when Treasurer Dave Combs began to address the new state funding formula last Monday. All we know at this point is that supposedly we will be receiving more money the next two years than forecasted.
We are a long way from cashing those checks. A brief example cited will serve to share our bewilderment.
The current formula has various components based on each district’s specific details of those components. For instance; if one of the components is reimbursement for special education expenses in a certain category and based on the number of students we have in that category, it might be that the formula calls for us to receive $32,000 for that student.
If, however, the state is experiencing a budget difficulty, they may adjust the funding to give us only $26,000 for that student. Further, if owing to special circumstances related to the student’s needs and the availability and cost of the services we in fact experience a cost of $40,000, there may be yet another piece of the formula that calls for us to be reimbursed for “catastrophic expense” the difference between the $32,000 recognized and the $40,000 experienced. $8,000.
However, if again, the state is short of funds, we may only receive a few hundred dollars of the excess $8,000 that we paid in expenses. We are totally at the mercy of the state and their funding formula adjustments.
We have had and continue to have students whose educational cost to the district is in excess of $40,000. We continue to absorb those costs not reimbursed.
Herein lies our current mystery. Although we know there are 39 components to the new formula the old formula is totally scrapped, we do not know the details of the components, much less do we know the adjustments to those components for our district. That, as they say, is still a subject that is being “tweaked.”
There were a few non-regular attendees at last week’s board meeting. I made a point of asking one why he was in attendance. His only comment was to observe the total mystery surrounding the discussion of finances. In spite of many sessions with Mr. Combs on this subject I had to concur that this day’s discussion left me bewildered as well.
But take heart, there will come a day of reckoning when the dark curtain of the new funding formula will be removed and the components will be in plain view just as they are now for the current formula. One can but hope all the “tweaking” will produce a result that permits us to expand our services to all students and enhance the educational product of the Marietta City Schools.
The most enjoyable and encouraging piece of the meeting was the discussion of the Project Lead The Way program. This well attended and in demand engineering program is currently being taught at the high school with plans to begin that program in the middle school in the future. The objective is to interest more students in the engineering studies and get them on the path to a lifetime career in those fields.
Our Project Lead the Way program is now nationally credentialed and students can enter many colleges with up to 15 hours of college course work to their credit.
Instructor Steve Foutty confessed that the course work challenges him at times. Further, his students are happy to help him at those times. I wonder if they speak Sanskrit.